Queen of Air and Darkness
by ashangel101010
Summary: Sequel to "Scary Monsters" story. It's Kreel's life day.


Queen of Air and Darkness

* * *

Sergeant Kreel should be counting his three blessings. First, the proximity bomb would've taken his right foot, but his boots, just like the rest of the squad's, were made by Aero. So he got to keep his right foot, but nearly all of the bones in it were broken; he also incurred several broken ribs and a punctured lung in the fall. Second, he's being treated at Vashka City Medcenter One, a top-notch medical facility located on a beautiful world. Finally, he has a very valid excuse for missing the two parties, one for Armitage and the other for Life Day, at the Hux Manor.

Unfortunately, he cannot appreciate these blessings. The medcenter has plenty of bacta, but the doctors are rather conservative with it, so he has to endure the agony of physical rehabilitation. He also has to share his room with a death trooper; he heard how terrifying they were because of secret augmentations, but he dismissed that as fanciful imaginings of green recruits. Then, he got Pik as his roommate.

Pik, a name that brings to Kreel's mind of an icepick to the brain, does not look monstrous like most death troopers are rumored to look under their helmets. His face is perfectly symmetrical complemented by a chiseled jawline and an aquiline nose. His chestnut-brown hair is short, showing off his ice-blue eyes. Those eyes are monstrous. They follow you. They dismiss you. They kill you.

Kreel has faced off against many kinds of people: slaves, rebels, and Jedi. However, none of them had Pik's inhuman eyes.

Those eyes only disappear in Kreel's sleep. Or when Pik leaves the room.

Like tonight.

* * *

A veil of cosmic purple moves across the white room, and Kreel responds by throwing his flat pillow at it. The veil catches it with two five-legged spiders and spins it around like a web. Then, the pillow falls to the floor like a freshly zapped fly.

"Sergeant Kreel, a valiant effort, but I'm afraid you should've kept the pillow. It's more useful for smothering than bludgeoning." The baritone teases his burning ears.

"Rama?" The veil has a moon-pale face under it, while the spiders become elegant hands. Rama's thin lips curl into a very pleased smile.

"In the flesh!" Rama appears at his bedside with nary a blink. A phantom inhabiting powder blue robes and a silver girdle.

"What are you doing here?" _It's Life Day! He should be sleeping with Hux and his baby, recovering from the festivities and cleaning up after a bunch of pajama-clad men. Maker, what did I do to deserve those–_

"Your squadmates kindly informed me of your hospitalization. Brendol and Armitage give their regards." He smiles demurely.

"So you came here to cheer me up?" Rama lays his delicate hands on top of his. Kreel is taken back by how callused they were for a house servant.

"Can you walk?"

"I can."

"Let's go then." Rama pulls him out of the bed like he weighed no more than Armitage.

"Go where?"

"To the outside world!"

* * *

Someone should've caught them. A fellow Stormtrooper. A meddroid. Pik. No one people the slate halls of the circular tower. Except for them. They move swiftly in the eyes of nothing and beyond. The outside world sways with palm trees and duracrete.

They enter the star-lit palm trees and don't come out until sunrise.

"Why are you covering my eyes?" Kreel asks as soon as he lost his sight.

"It's a surprise." He shivers at Rama's hot breath grazing his ear. Only two minutes later that Rama relinquishes his hold on him.

He sees a field of white snow and a skinned d'oemir bear at its center. There's also a picnic basket, but Kreel is wondering how Rama brought the snow over.

He steps on it with the papery slippers that the medcenter issued him; he feels the cold wetness of real snow crunching beneath his feet.

"You'll get frostbite if you keep standing there." Rama teases with a snap of cold wind. He ambles through the snow, leaving faint slipper prints like a fawn. Kreel follows him, leaving behind human footprints.

"Brendol made the rug himself back when he was a junior officer." Rama sits with his legs tucked under him like he's serving tea on Gatalenta. Kreel sits cross-legged on the other side of the picnic basket; he digs his fingers, human and mechno, into the fur and finds them to be bristly yet warm.

"Brendol added heating to the rug; he's so clever, my Bren." The impish giggle smothers the possessiveness in the young man's voice. His slender hands slither into the basket and pulls out a cloche-covered dish.

"His heart isn't under there, is it?" Kreel feels compelled to ask for his own sanity.

Rama smiles crookedly and hands him the dish. He motions with his right hand, a rolling wave, for him to uncover it. Kreel grimaces and pulls off the cloche like a bandage.

A heart-shaped cake lies on the silver. The frosting appears to be as white as the snow, but upon further inspection, he sees thousands of red pinpricks in it. Red icing at the heart's center forms the words: _"Happy 25__th__ life day!" _

It takes a moment for Kreel to calculate that today would be his life day on Chagar IX.

"My life day on Life Day." Kreel would chuckle if he wasn't alarmed about Rama's knowledge. He never told any of his squadmates when his life day was, and the only person he told happens to be very dead.

"Actually, it's about three o'clock in the morning, so it's a day after Life Day." And somehow Rama's blasé correction makes it so much worse.

"Did Mic splice into my files?"

"Oh no. I can see the distant past." Rama reaches into the basket and pulls out two forks and a crimson thermos. He unscrews the cap and pours the chocolate-colored liquid into the cap. "I also made Corellian hot chocolate. I wasn't certain what medications you were on, so I only gave you a quarter of the rum."

"…..You're a Force-user."

"Of course, and Lord Vader is aware." Rama takes a sip of the steaming drink and sighs with pleasure.

"Is Armitage–"

"Of course not. Just because one parent is a Force-user, there's no guarantee the child will be Force-sensitive." Rama titters though his eyes become hard as emeralds. He then suddenly tosses a fork into the cake's left ventricle.

"Is the frosting peppermint?" Kreel decides it would be best, for his sanity, to change the subject.

"A bit of extract, but mostly crushed peppermint rollocks. The cake itself is red velvet." Rama sticks the other fork on the right ventricle. The heart is formally split between them.

Kreel stumbles through the sliding door and away from the rosy light. Peppermint and rum fill the musty air. He lands face first into his bed. The door slides open again.

A veiled man glides to the bed. He picks up the forgotten pillow and puts it right by the sergeant's head. He takes his veil off and covers the sleeping man with it. He turns his head towards the gazer.

Pik sees a void where a face should be.

And it smiles at him.

* * *

**Author's Comments- **Here are the links:

Here is an image of Eclipsa the Queen of Darkness. When I first saw her chapter in _The Magic Book of Spells_, I couldn't but think of her as the Queen of Air and Darkness because her parasol also allows her to float like Mary Poppins. I would call her a frivolous yet whimsical person, and she reminded so much of Chancellor Palpatine that I actually could believe we were going to get a Darth Sidious twist from her. But that would've been too obvious, and she just wants her family to be safe and sound. I was going to use her outfit from her chapter cover, but it didn't mesh well with the Celena veil: a href=" . /67e30c1e780fc04f113f42ebfab4f609/tumblr_pf4s2v8Xco1xr5e14o5_ "Link/a

Here is an image of Celena the Shy. I always viewed her as the prettiest out of all the queens in the book and the one I wanted to know more of, but the book offers not much and neither does the show. I took her dress and fashioned it into Rama's veil: a href=" . /star-and-the-forces-of-evil/images/d/d1/Celena_the_ /revision/latest?cb=20181011230328"Link/a

Rama's dress robes are inspired by Princess Nuala of _Hellboy II: The Golden Army_. I went for the blue version because I think it works better for Rama than the gold and white or black and red: a href=" . "Link/a

Here is an image of the cake from _Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)_, which is what Kreel's life day cake is based on. Also, I recommend the movie if you want trippy summertime heat: a href=" . "Link/a

I am going to be honest: I have mostly forgotten about _Thrawn: Treason_, and that's not good. Heck, I still remember most of _Phasma_, mostly because of how anger-inducing it was, and I can't recall like 90% of a Thrawn novel! Pik and Waffle I only remember because they're like the only death troopers with names so far in New Canon, even if the most interesting part of their description was about their eyes on page 145. Of course, I remember the two Palpatine scenes and Eli reuniting with Thrawn, but I also remember how annoying and disappointing that Krennic's brownnoser didn't get killed in the novel. Since neither the Wookie or novel confirms that these two named death troopers were on Thrawn's ship that the space-squids took into hyperspace, they get to live (because there's no logical way for either Thrawn or the unfortunate crew members trapped aboard can breathe in space when all the windows are broken on the ship). Zahn doesn't give them hair, skin, or eye color, so I took advantage of that.

The Wookie doesn't list much for Gatalenta, but they are known for their tea and Jedi history. I presume that they must have tea ceremonies of some kind. Also, re-read Kreel's article and realized I forgot that he had a life before Task Force 99. And a cybernetic left arm because he had to cut off his own arm during a fight against Luke in 0 ABY aka the year Armitage was born. To be fair, most of this comes from the comics and I don't read them, though I am reading the old Marvel run of _Star Wars_. Luke and Leia have a very consensual kiss in issue five; you can tell that no one knew that Luke and Leia would be revealed as siblings in the future.

I've been watching analysis videos on _The Adolescence of Utena _and I may have gotten carried away with it in some of the story. Unfortunately, Kreel and Rama aren't Utena and Anthy! Also, a very slight hint of _Twin Peaks: The Return_. They might be more like Sate and Palpatine since I always imagine Palpatine teasing Sate whenever he feels like it, but Rama tries not to. But it's hard to repress his natural Palpatine impulses like messing with people who have done no harm to him.


End file.
